Plumbing for solar heater and heatpump

[CJadamec]

So maybe I'm overthinking this a tad but I'm unsure of the best way to add a solar collector to supplement my heat pump. I want to run the solar panel in parallel with my heat pump so I'm worried about putting too much pressure or flow into the solar panel. The solar panel is going to be rack mounted roughly at the same elevation of the pool. Starting with a check valve and a 3-way diverter valve coming off the filter I can split the flow to the solar panel and the heat pump. Where to tie the return from the solar panel is whats giving me headaches. Should I run the water from the solar panel back to the pool on a separate return line which would allow me to keep the pressure in the panel as low as possible. Or should I just bring the return from the panel back to the outlet of the heat pump with another check valve but the way I see it is that would add a few more psi to the solar panel.

 

[pooldv]

I installed a heat pump last fall and I installed it in series with my plumbing after the solar panels. I installed a bypass to bypass the heater, if needed. All water goes to filter to solar to heat pump to SWG to pool. Pics in my pool thread, link in sig.

 

[CJadamec]

A very nice setup indeed. I see that you have the 5 4'x12' panels. I'm only putting in 1 4'x20' solar panel (for this season at least). I'm not trying to replace the heat pump but if I can squeeze a solar panel in to get some utility free heat into the pool why not right. I can't run the full 20 gpm thru the one solar panel that the heat pump needs. I think I saw that the max flow through one panel is about 9 gpm but its better for the panel to run it around 5.